Volume 1 Chapter 83: Drinks
It was already late in the evening, but the city of Xiacai was brightly lit and bustling with people.
In the evening, Prime Minister Lü Haowen personally crossed the river to comfort the troops, but because he was worried that the Jin army still had a large number of cavalry in the north and their movements were unknown, he did not hold a large banquet to reward the soldiers. However, in the evening, several clerks could not help but get together again and had a drink in Zhao Ding's mansion to calm their nerves.
"Han Liangchen set an ambush and killed a general today, which makes him the most meritorious. His wisdom, courage and might are comparable to the famous generals in ancient times. His merits are so great that he is worthy of being promoted to the governor, right?" Everyone had just drunk the first glass of wine in celebration, and before they had a chance to drink privately, Chief Censor Zhang Jun and Zhang Deyuan could not wait to speak.
"General Zhang must be good too," Zhao Ding, Zhao Yuanzhen, Zhang Jun's close friend, the current governor of Shouzhou, who might be about to move up, responded immediately. "He already has the title of Observation Envoy. He remained calm in the face of danger and commanded the troops with confidence. In addition, he had previously defended Xiacai with his own army, so he is qualified to be promoted to Jiedushi."
"Okay, both of you." Lü Haowen smiled for the first time in the past six months. "At this point, the officials in Jingdong and Jingdong have been emptied, and even Yue Fei and Zhang Rong have become pacification envoys. They have the actual title of being emperors, but not the name. What will happen to Han and Zhang, the two generals who supported the emperor, from now on? This is a matter of course, and there is no need to discuss it further."
Zhang and Zhao both stood up to apologize, and drank a cup as punishment before sitting down.
As the two of them sat down, Lu Xianggong took the initiative to speak: "In my opinion, the most urgent matter is where to go after the war... We can't really stay in Shouzhou as Wang Shuxiang said, right? Before crossing the river today, Lin Maonan (Lin Qi) from the Ministry of Personnel asked me about this matter again, and I was also in a dilemma for the time being."
Unexpectedly, none of the three highest-ranking civil servants, Zhang, Zhao and Lin, who were below Lu Haowen, responded, but instead remained silent.
You must keep silent!
Scholar Kobayashi, who had accidentally gotten good luck in front of Emperor Zhao today, became more and more disdainful of Lu Haowen. Although everyone is willing to support you as the leader of the Baguashan temporary emperor in order to guard against Prime Minister Li and suppress Prime Minister Wang, everyone has their own opinions on such major events...Among them, Zhao Ding, the great herder of Shouzhou, is eager for the emperor to stay in Shouzhou. In that case, wouldn't he, a small official who was in charge of Shouzhou at that time, become a figure like the prefect of Kaifeng?
As for Scholar Xiao Lin himself, he had thought clearly before that he had a shallow foundation, but he had many brothers, and they all served as officials in Huainan, and their connections were all there. If he could stay in Huainan, with the help of many people including his brothers and nephews, wouldn't he be able to gain a firm foothold in front of the officials?
Therefore, Bachelor Kobayashi also secretly agreed to stay in Shouzhou.
As for Zhang Jun, there was no need for him to say anything, as Scholar Kobayashi knew what this guy was thinking... He was simply trying to follow the emperor's wishes, and before the emperor expressed his opinion and gave him instructions, this guy was unwilling to say a word.
While Mr. Kobayashi was daydreaming, seeing that the atmosphere was getting bad, Zhang Jun and Zhang Xiantai had already secretly stepped on their little brother, Hu Yin, who was eating and drinking lavishly.
"It's a pity that we didn't catch the fourth prince of the Jin Dynasty, Wanyan Wushu!" After being stepped on, Hu Mingzhong immediately put down the meat in his hand and started to talk nonsense. "Otherwise, we could definitely use it to exchange for the two saints..."
“…”
“…”
"I... Although the Jin army was defeated, it still has fighting power. Moreover, there are two large armies in the north to provide support. I can't risk pursuing them." Zhang Jun came to his senses after a long time, but he was extremely helpless and hurried to smooth things over. "Even the Jin army's main camp will be demolished and ignored. The corpses and wounded will be transported across the river tomorrow. How can we talk about catching Jin Wushu?"
"Speaking of which, we still don't know what the casualties and gains were in this battle?" Zhao Ding also asked about other things in a hurry.
"As far as I know, there were not many lightly wounded in this battle, but the majority were seriously injured and disabled, and the dead, totaling about 2,000 people... As for the spoils, it was roughly the same, but there were quite a few Jurchens, Xi, and Khitans." Hu Mingzhong thought for a moment and replied immediately. "And there were quite a few Han soldiers who surrendered, about 1,000 people, which was counted by the emperor himself during the day."
"One for one, it's a big victory!" Lu Haowen sighed with relief.
"Don't forget the two Meng'an who were cut off when they crossed the river rashly. In fact, this battle has defeated four complete Meng'an of the Jin army!" Zhang Jun also sighed. "And it's not like the plot in Liangshanpo in the north, where they used the terrain to surround the minority with the majority. Today's battle can be called pulling teeth out of a tiger's mouth. Han Liangchen is truly a famous general !"
"Yue Fei and Zhang Rong are not incompetent people." Hu Yin responded seriously again.
"That's right!" Bachelor Kobayashi finally responded.
"It's all because the emperor is good at judging people." Lu Haowen continued to laugh, but suddenly remembered something. "Let's talk about...what has the emperor been busy with all day today? How did Mingzhong have time to come here?"
When the prime minister asked about the emperor's whereabouts, Hu Mingzhong, as a close official in the imperial court, naturally did not dare to neglect him. He immediately stood up and said solemnly: "Reporting to Prime Minister Lu, after the battle this morning, Yang Yizhong returned, and the emperor personally rode on horseback to inspect the battlefield, checking the casualties and spoils. Before sunset in the afternoon, he personally sat in the Jin army camp, supervised the dismantling of the camp, and collected the war horses, armor, gold, silver and silk seized from the camp in public, and then distributed them to the various troops in public..."
"How is it divided?"
"The government will take three, and the rest will take ten. Han Shizhong's troops will take five, Zhang Jun's troops will take three, Wang De and Fu Qing will take one, and Yang Yizhong, Hu Yantong, Qiao Zhongfu, and Zhang Jing will take one..."
"The division is reasonable, but Qiao Zhongfu and Zhang Jing were taken together with Yang Yizhong and Huyan Tong, instead of being included with Wang Yasha and Fu Qing. It seems that the emperor still took the words of the 3,000 soldiers under his direct command seriously?" Lu Hao asked with a frown.
"That should be the meaning."
"But it's still a little inappropriate." Lu Haowen nodded slowly, then shook his head again. "The emperor shouldn't have taken the third one first... This doesn't mean that Zhang, Han and others will be alienated from the emperor because of this matter, but in the eyes of these foreign generals, wouldn't the first three be cheaper for Yang Yizhong, Huyan Tong, Qiao Zhongfu, and Zhang Jing? And from today's merits, to be fair, the generals in front of the emperor are far inferior to Zhang and Han." At this point, Lu Xianggong paused slightly before continuing. "And if we have always been in the same light as before, it would be fine. Now that we have calculated it in detail, you three and I four, this three points seems awkward. In my opinion, the emperor only needs to have a general idea of the distribution of the military officials, and there is no need to get too involved or too detailed..."
"Mr. Lu misunderstood." Hu Mingzhong waited for Lu Haowen to finish his words, then immediately responded seriously. "You must know that the spoils in the camp are also classified. The three parts that the emperor took from the camp today were all cloth and copper coins, which were used for pensions and resettlement for the seriously injured and disabled and the dead in battle. They did not even cross the river. They were carefully distributed to the generals according to the casualties counted before, and asked them to keep them first. No one in the army was dissatisfied. Han Liangchen was the first to enter the camp, but he took all the more than 2,000 war horses in the camp. The emperor pretended not to know at first, but mentioned this matter again when he divided the spoils later, and converted the war horses into two parts. In this way, Zhang and Han had nothing to say about the subsequent distribution."
"So that's how it is." Prime Minister Lu nodded his head repeatedly, looking a little embarrassed. "Things have been so complicated, and the emperor has made his own decision. It's me, an old man, who has thought too much. To be honest, seeing that you have helped the emperor win such a great victory today, the country may have a chance to breathe, and I almost want to resign..."
Hearing this, everyone hurriedly stood up to comfort him… One said that Prime Minister Lu was in charge of the court affairs at the time, and he made great contributions in this battle, and his achievements in military affairs even surpassed those of Prime Minister Li; another said that the country was still in turmoil, and a great victory was just to boost morale, but it was still a long way from stability, and Prime Minister Lu should not easily abandon the country and the government during this national crisis; even the shrewd scholar Kobayashi finally praised him earnestly, saying that Prime Minister Lu had worked hard in the past three or four months in Bagua Mountain.
Obviously, these important officials are still the same. They hope that Prime Minister Lu will continue to be so confused, but also hope that he will continue to have a successful career and protect everyone from wind and rain... It would be best if he could continue to be a prime minister in a confused manner, and then accompany the emperor to recover the two rivers and rebuild the country.
In this way, some of the younger ones with less experience might be able to serve as !
However, Hu Yin and Hu Mingzhong were still a young man. After everyone finally persuaded Mr. Lu to stop, and the atmosphere at the banquet became a happy one, this guy continued to report seriously:
"Let Prime Minister Lu know that the emperor distributed the rewards in the evening and visited the wounded. Then he asked us to go back on our own. He and Yang Yizhong took some wine and went to find someone to drink with. That's why I'm here!"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the room suddenly became quiet.
"Mingzhong, why didn't you say it before?" After a long pause, Zhao Ding, the prefect of Zhao, could not bear it any longer.
"My husband never asked about it before." Hu Yin spread his hands.
"Are you looking for Zhang and Han?" Chief Censor Zhang Jun followed closely behind.
“Not really…”
"That's fine." Lu Haowen sighed. "It's impossible that when the emperor is meeting with the generals in private, you and I, the civil officials, are drinking somewhere else? Since you are not going to look for Zhang Han, are you going to drink with the generals in front of the emperor?"
"No... I mean, the emperor is not only looking for Zhang and Han, but also Jie Yuan, Liu Bao, Wang Sheng, and even the ordinary soldiers in the army. They are all outstanding heroes today. There are more than a hundred of them. They went to the Huai River to drink together!" Hu Yin quickly added. "One of them is a captain nicknamed Li Laosan. I personally went to find him... He was upset at first, saying that he didn't do anything great today, but two of his brothers died, and he didn't want to embarrass himself at the banquet. In the end, his commander Liu Bao personally went over to give him a verbal order before he was called over."
After hearing this, everyone was speechless, and they all felt that the wine and drinks in front of them had lost their flavor.
"Why didn't Mingzhong finish speaking at once?" Zhang Jun was also extremely helpless.
"It was clearly Brother Yuan Zhen (Zhao Ding) who interrupted me." Hu Mingzhong remained calm.
Everyone became more helpless.
Finally, after Lu Haowen found out the reason, he smiled slightly, showing the demeanor of a prime minister: "Since the emperor has made a promise before the war, he must keep it now. Why should you and I care? Besides, the honors after the war should belong to the soldiers. People like you and me should focus on the court. That is where we can display our talents... What do you think, where should the emperor go after the war?"
Zhang Jun, Lin Jingmo, and Zhao Ding looked at each other, first at Prime Minister Lu, then at Hu Mingzhong who had an innocent face. They were all helpless, with a lot of thoughts in their minds... It was difficult for them, the favorites of the officials, to be so popular!
